Prosecutor Says Man Visited Pedophile Resort

By SUSAN SAULNY

Published: September 24, 2003

A former Brooklyn pediatrician took beach vacations to Mexico and Central America not to enjoy sun and sand, but rather to have sex with young boys at a resort for pedophiles, a federal prosecutor told a Manhattan jury yesterday as the man's trial began.

The former doctor, Stefan Irving, 56, of Sunset Park, traveled to Mexico and Honduras, where he baited boys as young as 6 with action figures and children's books, then took advantage of them, Michael Scudder, an assistant United States attorney, said in his opening statement in Federal District Court.

''Ladies and gentlemen, the defendant did not stay at a Holiday Inn,'' Mr. Scudder said. ''He stayed at a resort where American men go to have sex with boys.''

Mr. Irving was arrested in May after a lengthy nationwide investigation led the authorities to a guesthouse in Acapulco, where they say boys from 6 to 17 were recruited off the streets and given shelter in exchange for sex.

Mr. Irving is charged with traveling internationally to engage in sex with a minor. If he is convicted, he will face up to 30 years in prison.

Mr. Irving lost his license to practice medicine after being convicted of attempted sexual abuse of a child in 1983.

Mr. Irving's lawyer, Andrew Citron, said in his opening statement that the government had a ''tremendous absence of evidence'' to support its charges in the current case. Mr. Citron also told the jury that Mr. Irving certainly had an interest in minors, but that his interest was ''not illegal.''

''He had many other reasons to make these trips other than to have sex with minors,'' Mr. Citron said of Mr. Irving. He later added, ''These were normal vacations.''

Mr. Citron criticized the government's evidence, which includes entries from Mr. Irving's personal journal and testimony from the manager of the Mexican guesthouse. He said that the journal excerpts about boys were incomplete and misleading, and that the manager of the guesthouse had ulterior motives for cooperating with prosecutors.

Officials have said the manager told them that on more than one occasion he observed a boy accompanying Mr. Irving into his bedroom at night. According to the complaint, the manager told investigators that Mr. Irving questioned him about which boys were staying at the guesthouse.

''The manager stated that Irving asked for such information because, perhaps among other reasons, he wanted to be certain that his favorite boys would be at the house when he visited from the United States,'' the complaint stated.